Online cab booking service Olacabs has raised Rs 250 crore in an investment round led by Steadview Capital and Sequoia Capital with participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Matrix Partners, reports The Times of India.

Olacabs co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal told the publication that they intend to use the investment raised to expand to new cities and categories and strengthen its driver ecosystem in the country. Update: Aggarwal has informed that they hope to be present in atleast 20 cities by the end of this year. They are also earmarking Rs 100 crores towards nurturing their driver ecosystem over the next one year.

The report suggests that Olacabs has raised a total investment of $65 million across three different rounds. It had raised Series B investment from Tiger Global and Matrix Partners in November last year and had secured its Series A funding from Tiger Global Management in April 2012. It had also received angel funding from investors like Rehan Yar Khan and Shaadi.com group founder Anupam Mittal among others in April 2011.

Launched in January 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Olacabs is essentially a marketplace that aggregates cab bookings and car rentals through different private taxi operators, small fleet operators and single vehicle owners. These car rentals might be point-to-point services within a city, hour-based rental services or an outstation travel.

The company is currently operational in Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Goa, Pune, Hyderabad, Chandigarh. It claims to have a network of around 11,000 cabs across these nine cities. It also claims to be generating 12,000 bookings on a daily basis, 50% of which is coming from its mobile apps. Olacabs currently offers native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Earlier in February this year, Olacabs had also introduced a low-cost taxi service called Ola Mini which claims to offer cabs at autorickshaw fares. However, its worth noting that Olacabs’ competitor Uber had also launched UberX last month. Similarly, Meru Cabs also has Genie Cabs.

Other players in this segment include TaxiForSure which had raised $10 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investors Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Blume Ventures in May this year and Saavari Car rentals which had raised Rs 5 crore from Inventus Capital Partners in April 2012.

One Comment

Olacabs are known to cause accidents. I faced an incident when the driver slept off and
rammed into a moving truck. The rear-view mirror hit & broke on my forehead. I was quick enough to block the impact with my left hand & bend over to the driver’s side else I wouldn’t have been killed instantly. I sustained injuries on my head, forehead, neck, shoulder, knee and a deep cut on my palm. My old-aged parents who were sitting at the back seat too sustained minor injuries on their head & hands.